“Mobile phone maps have guided people through streets and alleys around the globe. But when those people step into a sprawling building, they can get lost.

“Inside, people have to ask strangers for directions or search for a directory or wall map. A number of start-up companies are charting the interiors of shopping malls, convention centers and airports to keep mobile phone users from getting lost as they walk from the food court to the restroom. Some of their maps might even be able to locate cans of sardines in a sprawling grocery store.”

Like at a startup: some days you feel like you’re mired in a bog, struggling to take a single step. Others, you feel as light as a bird and ready to take on the world. We like to think we experience more of the latter here at Micello and today definitely reinforced that feeling. An article on page B3 of today’s New York Times featured Micello among a few other indoor mapping companies. You can see it online here.

And here are the juicy parts about Micello:

“Ankit Agarwal, chief executive of Micello, an indoor mapping service based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has created a library of nearly 2,000 maps, most of them of American shopping malls. He said his team could recreate a mall floor plan in a couple of hours, based on originals that they find in the public domain.

“We never have to visit the place,” Mr. Agarwal said. No malls have complained, he added.

…

In some cases, Micello’s maps show details beyond the basic four walls. A map of the Ikea store in East Palo Alto, Calif., features an aisle winding through the store and the locations of departments like “children’s” and “closet systems.”

…

Mr. Agarwal, from Micello, said he was just excited by the prospect of all that remained to be mapped indoors. Speaking about his service last month at a mobile phone conference at the University of California, San Francisco, he looked out the window and declared, “I want to map every building on this campus.”